5.6 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
When he is betrayed by a trusted friend, Mathayus must marshal all his strength and cunning to outwit a formidable opponent who will stop at nothing to unlock a supreme ancient power.
Starring: Victor Webster, Ellen Hollman, Will Kemp, Barry Bostwick, Rutger HauerAction | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
Spanish: DTS 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
French: DTS 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
BDInfo
English SDH, French, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
UV digital copy
DVD copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 1.5 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Hm. Well. Wow. Ooph. That just happened. So... where to begin? Somewhere else preferably, anywhere really, so long as it isn't anywhere near The Scorpion King 4: Quest for Power; a direct-to-video mess that doesn't borrow, but damn near plagiarizes other films. Better films. Beloved films. It goes beyond a nod or reference. At one point, it lifts the bag/idol swap sequence from Raiders of the Lost Ark. All well and good. It's short, cute and fun. A nod. But when Quest for Power reaches its endgame, it swipes the entire climax from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. (Spoiler alert: A father lies dying, leaving an adventurer with little choice but to retrieve a powerful relic from a deadly chamber of ancient traps, so the dying man can be healed of his mortal wound. To obtain the relic, the adventurer must face a series of challenges which bear a striking resemblance to the three trials Dr. Jones faces to lay his mitts on the Holy Grail. The villain follows the adventurer, though, and finds that handling the relic is, ahem, trickier than he suspected. I'm guessing you can guess what comes next. Anyone who's seen The Last Crusade should. The similarities are uncanny.) Notice the difference? This isn't a reference, and at best stretches the definition of homage to its breaking point. This is the film's endgame, and it plays, almost beat for beat, like Indy's third outing. And that isn't the only scene cribbed. '80s and '90s fantasy cinema has been shamelessly pillaged and plundered. Quest for Power culls everything from Conan the Barbarian and its sequel to Beastmaster, Dragonslayer, Willow, The Princess Bride, Monty Python... the list goes on and on.
Combine that with everything you'd expect from the fourth entry in a spin-off from the flailing Mummy series -- cringe-worthy performances, cringier dialogue, a bloated story, a paper-thin script, bizarre (and bizarrely short) appearances from the likes of Rutger Hauer, Michael Bien and Lou Ferrigno, SyFy Movie of the Week production values, cheese heaped atop camp, even cheesier FX, endless jokes and eye-rolling one-liners, generic fantasy music, stocky visuals and choppy action, just to name a few issues. Bottom line, if you absolutely adore SyFy's on-the-cheap B-movies, if you laugh and enjoy every awful minute of every awful misfire, you might, might find something to enjoy in The Scorpion King 4: The Quest for Power. If so, my hat's off to you. You are a glutton for cinematic punishment and I refuse to judge your sadomasochistic viewing pleasures. I hope someone enjoys this junk, otherwise it's a bigger waste of budget than I already think.
The Scorpion King 4: The Quest for Power certainly looks the low budget part, with a 1080p/AVC-encoded video presentation that isn't about to impress anyone. There isn't much in the way of technical issues, other than some minor noise, crush and artifacting, all of which is easy to overlook. But darker, torch-lit or nighttime scenes -- and there are a lot -- are muddy, murky and lack the detail on display when the sun is up. Colors are merely serviceable (nicely saturated skintones being the highlight of the image), black levels are dingy and muted, delineation is problematic, and clarity is inconsistent. Again, this is the film as it was shot, so I can't complain too much. But there's nothing remarkable about the presentation, nor does it amount to a saving grace. It's good. Don't misunderstand. Great, though? Not quite.
Quest for Power's sound design isn't much better, but like the disc's video presentation, Universal's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track isn't the culprit. Voices are clean and clear, even if they take too much priority over the rest of the soundscape, and rarely sound grounded in the world of the sequel or balanced properly within the soundfield. The result is an oft-times front-heavy experience, though some playful rear speaker activity mixes it up pretty well. LFE output is passable too, giving action scenes some much-needed weight and heft, but it all still registers as rather flat and generic. Does any of it amount to a glaring problem? Only at the filmmaking level. Universal's lossless track does the best it can with what it's given.
Victor Webster, Ellen Holman, Barry Bostwick and Will Kemp make the most of a bad, bad situation, and I actually came away from The Scorpion King 4: Quest for Power liking all four quite a bit. I hated their characters, the dialogue, the action, the cheese and the camp, but the lead actors hold their heads high and have what appears to be fun doing it. Otherwise, there's nothing here to like and even less to enjoy. If you dig low-budget SyFy-esque fare, you might find something worth finding. Good luck, though. Walking away from Quest for Power with a smile isn't going to be easy. Universal's Blu-ray release is at least decent, with a serviceable AV presentation and a decent lineup of special features. None of it makes the movie go down more smoothly, but it's something.
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